The Return of the Native Part 2: ‘Miracle’ in the forest pays rich dividends for Udalguri

Women make a few bucks by growing saplings from seeds collected from Bhairabkunda forest, besides occasionally selling firewood. Plans are afoot to fully ulitise the place’s ecotourism potential and involve locals in beekeepingUdalguri, Assam: The five-year-long effort to breathe life back into the Bhairabkunda forest in Udalguri district of Assam was surely a success. But with it has come bigger responsibilities.The forest now has several high-value timber species, and there can be no compromise on the security front. "With the help of villagers, we keep a strict vigil on smugglers. No one has ever dared to enter the forest," said Gethsemane Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) secretary Bilup Daimari.He said they have never sold any trees. "The village women who collect the fallen branches for firewood sometimes sell them to sustain themselves," he added.Gethsemane Joint Forest Management Committee was a 35-member strong committee born by diluting six smaller JFMCs in Dhansiri Forest Division, Udalguri, Assam (Photo: Shajid Khan)"We often collect wood from the jungle, which serves as fuel for cooking," said Phulmani Kisku, who also grows saplings from the seeds collected from forest trees. She has more than 80 arecanut trees in her home garden, fetching nearly 3 tonnes of harvest annually.The man-made forest also houses a big pond. "We created this water source (0.82 acre to be precise) to rear fish. It fetches us good revenue every year," said Atul Basumatary, a Gethsemane JFMC member. A three-room guest house built at a cost of Rs 10 lakh using the funds provided by the district administration serves both as a homestay and a green open space for get-togethers and meetings. In all, it can accommodate six persons, with each room costing Rs 2,000 a day. The Gethsemane JFMC uses the income thus generated to strengthen its forest revival strategies.Balipara Foundation collaborated with the local community to develop eco-tourism in Bhaibhkunda forest region, Udalguri, Assam (Photo: Shajid Khan)"The guest house was built after Thaneswar Malakar, the then Udalguri deputy commissioner, proposed the idea upon his visit to the forest. He also arranged funds from the district administration," explained Swmkhwr Daimari, another JFMC member.Tourists from 24 countries, including Japan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia and the UK and US, have visited the vacation home so far and contributed to the tourism economy.The forest community has also entered into apiculture and meliponiculture, the cultivation of honey from stingless bees belonging to the Apidae family. Last year, Assam Investment Advisory Society, a local NGO, facilitated 10 days of training in meliponiculture for four JFMC members in Umrangso of Dima Hasao district. "The honey extracted from these stingless bees has unique medicinal value, contains much less sugar than regular honey, and has a tangy taste. It can fetch a good price in the market, ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 per litre," said Prinson Daimari, the president of Gethsemane JFMC.“We are rearing these bees on a pilot basis in about 30 small boxes attached to a row of wooden poles. But the bees are yet to produce honey. If the product is good, we will introduce it among locals living on the periphery of Gethsemane JFMC to explore it as a sustainable livelihood option."About the future plans, Prinson said, "If everything goes well, we will export it to Malaysia and some European nations, where the demand is high. Even in states like Sikkim, it will fetch Rs 6,000 per litre.”Rural Futures programmeThe habitat restoration and ecotourism efforts of Gethsemane JFMC got a big boost in 2017, when the Balipara Foundation established Elephant Country Camp, a centre to promote ecotourism under the Udalguri Landscape Mission and Rural Futures programme.The foundation sponsored the plantation of nearly 80,000 saplings on 32 acres of land and employed villagers for the task. "The timber and fruit trees were mainly sowed as fillers to cover the barren areas of the forest," said Basumatary.The local communities in Udalguri, Assam converted 550 hectares of barren land into a forest under National Afforestation Programme in 2012 (Photo: Shajid Khan)According to Saurav Malhotra, the co-founder of the Rural Futures programme, his organisation developed a unique model aimed at getting communities behind the value chain of rewilding forests — from seeds and nurseries to reforestation — almost five years ago. "With Gethsemane JFMC, our main targets were habitat restoration and tourism,” he told 101Reporters.“We emphasised that the man-made forest must be similar to the natural one, where trees traditionally viable to the ecosystem grow and and not those with economic benefits."The forest is now home to not just elephants, leopards, monkeys, wild boars, tigers and deer, but also reptiles such as paradise flying snake, tokay geckos, python and Lepidiota mansueta beetle species, butterflies and dragonflies. Native, Himalayan, and migratory birds from neighbouring Bhutan find sanctuary in the majestic trees here.Managing man-animal conflictMany villagers were concerned about possible attacks from wild animals, when efforts for reforestation were still progressing. But there have been no such incident till date."Elephant herds from adjoining areas of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh descend downhill and stray into the forest and villages, but have not led to any human casualty as they get enough fodder," said Sona Tudu, a woman residing on the forest fringe. Earlier, there were incidents of human-elephant conflicts here.Phulmani Kisku(Left) and Shyam Sarma(Right) have been part of creating a man-made forest under the guidance of Rural Futures Programme by Balipara Foundation in Udalguri, Assam (Photo: Shajid Khan)Unlike in the forest under Gethsemane JFMC, conflict is on the rise in other parts of Udalguri district. According to an official data from the Assam Forest Department, 31 elephants and 72 humans died in such incidents between 2016 and 2021. Crops in 905 hectares and 1,480 households were damaged. "The man-elephant conflict was a burning issue in the Indo-Bhutan border area. But afforestation has provided fodder for the pachyderms. Though they sometimes enter the villages in the forest periphery, there have been no casualties," informed wildlife conservationist Nabajyoti Baruah."We believe the forest holds a strong potential in terms of ecotourism. The only thing is that both the government and wildlife organisations should actively promote the region," said Baruah.Udalguri is a home-grown lesson in conservation, which shows how grassroots movements and community-led initiatives can help restore ecological balance and provide socioeconomic respite to forest-fringe settlements.Edited by Grace JayanthiThis is the second part of a two-part series on the forest restoration carried out in Udalguri, Assam. You can read the first part here.This article is a part of 101Reporters' series on The Promise Of Commons. In this series, we explore how judicious management of shared public resources can help the ecosystem as well as the communities inhabiting it.The cover image has been sourced via Flickr under creative commons license, captured by Mike Prince.

The Return of the Native Part 1: Unity brings back diversity into Udalguri’s barren forest

Former members of the All Bodo Students' Union take the lead to revive Assam’s Bhairabkunda forest from the verge of destruction, caused by timber smuggling, repeated floods and ethnic clashes    Udalguri, Assam: The change was slow but stark. In a decade’s span, a pristine forest in Assam was ruined to such an extent that only barren wasteland remained of the place where tigers and elephants once roamed freely.   The 22.24-sq-km area encompassing Bhairabkunda forest in Udalguri district — located at the tri-junction where Assam meets Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring nation Bhutan — has a fascinating tale of rebirth to tell, though it was ripped apart by rampant deforestation, deadly floods and ethnic clashes between 1979 and 1989.“The migration to this region during the insurgent movement not only raised the demand for house plots, but also fuelled the creation of tea plantations by former militants. People had no livelihood options before them, and aid from the government or prominent NGOs was not forthcoming. Hence, chopping down trees for timber was the easiest way to make money then,” explained Saurav Malhotra, who designed the Rural Futures programme of Balipara Foundation.“Insurgency was not all to blame. In fact, the socio-economic conditions were really bad.”JFMCs were constituted to turn 550 hectares of barren land into a forest under a government-sponsored afforestation programme in Udalguri, Assam (Photo: Shajid Khan)Prinson Daimari, a conservationist who was once a member of the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), told 101Reporters that he never thought that a place so rich, thriving and abundant in biodiversity would undergo such a radical transformation.Udalguri in north Assam was a hotbed of insurgency, witnessing clashes and agitations — the most prominent being the 1987 Bodo Movement seeking a separate state of Bodoland. The ABSU was the foremost students' body among the Bodo community, the largest plain tribe of Assam. It wanted nearly 25,500 sq km to be carved out of Assam along the Brahmaputra’s north bank for the proposed state of Bodoland.The movement culminated in a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Centre, Assam government and the ABSU-Bodo Peoples’ Action Committee on February 20, 1993, which brought back a semblance of peace to the area. Udalguri presently comes under the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Region, administered by the Bodoland Territorial Council. “Only tree stumps were left behind. Besides illegal felling, two devastating floods in the Dhansiri and Jampani decimated the greenery," recounted Prinson, the president of Gethsemane Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) that presently manages the restored areas of Bhairabkunda, now a reserve forest."Timber smugglers were active here until early 2000s, contributing immensely to deforestation," Udalguri-based wildlife activist Rewati Raman Sapkota told 101Reporters. From livestock rearing to planting treesPrinson and his friends  — Atul Basumatary, Sunilal Boro, Helena Basumatary, Someswari Daimary to name a few — from neighbouring villages started the Sonai Regional Multipurpose Farm in 2003. The commonality between them was that most of them were members of the ABSU’s Sonai regional committee.Though not trained in farm work, they were driven by the zeal of entrepreneurship. "There were 35 of us, all in our 20s and 30s. We started off by rearing cattle, piglets, ducks and poultry on about 7.5 hectares of wasteland,” said Gethsemane JFMC secretary Bilup Daimari. “Much to our dismay, the farm activities were hit by our lack of expertise and humid/arid climate. As financial losses mounted, we had to close it in 2006."However, in a serendipitous turn of events, the group regained momentum after an enthusiastic Naba Kumar Bordoloi joined as Forest Range Officer in Darrang district in 2007. He also happened to supervise neighbouring Udalguri. "Bordoloi studied the region's ecosystem, observed our zeal to shield the place, and suggested that we form a JFMC to take up afforestation under a Central government scheme," recalled Prinson.The members of Gethsemane JFMC comprising of 35 memebers, was consituted after the former JFMCs were dissolved upon the completion of afforestation project (Photo: Shajid Khan)Thus, the residents of Sonaigaon, Goroimari, Sapangaon, Bhairabpur, No 1 Majargaon and No 2 Majargaon villages assembled under the Darrang Forest Development Authority to register six JFMCs. They planted saplings under a micro-plan approved by the National Afforestation Programme. The forest department provided seeds, while the duties of sowing, watering and keeping vigil were divided among the JFMCs, which had 25 to 30 members each under the leadership of its president. “The creation of JFMCs made the process more authorised, which funds to support the community conservation. Though the idea of involving local communities in conservation practices was a good step, the system is still failing to utilise their full potential by not creating easy systems, and due to poor fund access,” Malhotra said. Mission modeThe government-sponsored afforestation programme ensured daily wages to the collaborating villagers, besides infusing a fresh lease of life into the denuded landscape. "We received nearly Rs 80 lakh based on the progress of work over a span of five years. Gradually, we began to see the changes. By 2012, trees covered 550 hectares of the total 1,200 hectares of barren land that came under plantation," Prinson said."Over 11 lakh saplings were planted, including timber species such as Tectona Grandis, Indian Rosewood, Catechu Bombax Ceiba, Teak, Duabanga Grandiflora and many types of bamboo,” informed Bilup. Fruit-bearing trees such as mango, gooseberry, blackberry, guava and elephant apple were also included, as wild animals, birds and butterflies could feed on them.Gethsemane Joint Forest Management Committee was a 35-member strong committee born by diluting six smaller JFMCs in Dhansiri Forest Division, Udalguri, Assam  (Photo: Shajid Khan)"It was a herculean task, though. The saplings wilted under scorching heat. The village youth then dug three channels to get water from the Dhansiri. It is now protected with an embankment — a wall along the river — so that the whole 550 hectares could receive water from it,” Prinson added.Interestingly, even the officials who came for routine inspections were skeptical about the restoration at first. "We are happy that the lost forest has been regenerated. Now the region is a dense woodland," said Helena Basumatary from a neighbouring village.Mining turns villainThe afforestation project was completed in 2012, and the six JFMCs were subsequently dissolved as the central scheme came to an end. However, within a few months, the community decided to form a 35-member committee under the Gethsemane JFMC fearing their six-year-long efforts might prove futile in the absence of a decision-making body at the village level. The new committee had members from all the dissolved committees.The JFMC’s name has its origins in the Bible’s 'Garden of Gethsemane', where Jesus had prayed the night before his crucifixion. It is now an urban forest at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.Despite their best efforts, Gethsemane JFMC was worried about the long-term sustainability of the forest as it witnessed massive erosion due to unscientific and uncontrolled lease-based mining in Dhansiri river bed. "Though we have not entered into any conflict with the sand miners, we have repeatedly requested the forest department to stop granting mining leases, but in vain,” rued JFMC member Ismail Daimari.“Although we voluntarily protect the forest without any honorarium, we still look up to the government to assist us in safeguarding this forest, which is our second home," he added.Edited by Grace JayanthiThis is the first part of a two-part series on the forest restoration carried out by the local communities in Udalguri, Assam.This article is a part of 101Reporters' series on The Promise Of Commons. In this series, we explore how judicious management of shared public resources can help the ecosystem as well as the communities inhabiting it.The cover image has been sourced via Flickr under creative commons license, captured by Santulan Mahanta.